Monday, March 2, 2009

Unplugged

Lately, Maeve has been a handful and hasn't exactly been the nicest kid on the block. She would hit her brother repeatedly as soon as I turned around and the last straw was when she hit another kid on the head with a large toy dinosaur. The hit was completely unprovoked as far as I could tell and it led me to think that a) Maeve needs more positive reinforcement and b) more stimulation.

I started by turning off the t.v. The t.v. had slowly gained presence in our household. It started with the kids watching t.v. upon waking. That wasn't a big deal because it allowed me to get breakfast ready quickly. Then the t.v. was turned on for awhile around lunch time and then again in the evening. It wasn't that the kids were watching a ton of t.v., but it was too much for them. Maeve had become uncreative, unmotivated and was unable to entertain herself without the t.v. turned on. She was stuck in a rut and I hadn't even realized it until recently.

A beautiful thing has happened in the last three days. My daughter is creative, nice, helpful and interested in all sorts of stuff. I feel like I have my Maeve back. Granted, she still hits her brother on the head from time to time, but those times are becoming few and far between. We've been talking about the four seasons, drawing pictures, playing games and pretending. Maeve was Chef Jacks last night and showed me how to properly smash freeze dried pears using a garlic press. She has done a great job of entertaining herself when I have things to get done and today she gave Finn a hug and a kiss and told him that she was so happy he was not ruining the cake she was creating.

We've been working more on how to handle frustrations and anger and how to share. I've really been trying to reinforce all of the great things she's been doing and praise her for them. The nice weather this week should help run off some energy and I am hopeful that the interactions she has this week with other kids will be positive.

I think it's going to be awhile before the t.v. gets turned on again in our house.

1 comment:

We ran into the same thing with the tv and Liv getting aggressive.Our rule now is that it is on until 9 int he morning (if they even want it, as they do not this morning) then they can pick a movie to watch around 3-4 to start to calm down for dinner and daddy getting home. It makes a huge difference limiting it, for sure. Liv is not all that into it now that she is in the hang of just entertaining herself. And Asher never cared:)